A List Some Carmakers Don't Covet

February 18, 2003
By DANNY HAKIM
www.nytimes.com


DETROIT, Feb. 14 - Automakers are obsessed with ratings,
from customer satisfaction to how many hours it takes
workers to assemble a car. But there is at least one list
many do not like to talk about.

The Environmental Protection Agency rates every vehicle
according to the amount of pollutants coming out of the
tailpipe that contribute to smog, which can worsen asthma
and lead to cancer and lung damage. Many popular sport
utility vehicles and pickup trucks rank at the bottom on
the 0-to-10 scale. Among them are a number of recently
introduced - and highly profitable - models.

Vehicles with ratings from 0 to 4 include four pickup
trucks - the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram and
GMC Sierra - as well as sport utilities, including the
Mercedes M class, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, Cadillac
Escalade, GMC Yukon and Lincoln Navigator.

Toyota, which has been praised by environmentalists for its
fuel-efficient hybrid car, the Prius, also sells three
sport utility vehicles that receive low ratings: the
Sequoia, the Land Cruiser and the LX 470 from its Lexus
division.

The low ratings mean that these vehicles emit at best 21
pounds of pollutants for every 15,000 miles driven, the
E.P.A. says, and have 2 to 10 times the emissions of most
Honda Civics. (The ratings are posted at
epa.gov/greenvehicles.)

Carmakers point out that even for the lowest-rated
vehicles, emissions of smog-forming pollutants - chemicals
like hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide as well as soot - are
substantially lower than in the past. And by the end of the
decade, regulations will be phased out that currently allow
medium and large sport utilities and pickups to have
greater emissions of airborne pollutants than do cars.

"By next year, 2004, cars and trucks will run 99 percent
cleaner than they did in the 60's," William Clay Ford Jr.,
chairman and chief executive of the Ford Motor Company,
said in a speech last month.

Even so, environmentalists say the air would be far cleaner
were it not for the growing popularity of large vehicles. A
recent study by one group, the Union of Concerned
Scientists, showed that the average light truck - a
category that includes sport utilities, minivans and
pickups - emits nearly 2.5 times the smog-forming
pollutants of the average car and nearly 1.5 times the
global-warming gases.

The critics say that automakers could do more to reduce
emissions right away, pointing to small sport utilities
like the Honda Element and the Volvo XC 90 that score
higher in the E.P.A. ratings. The improvement can be
accomplished by adding or upgrading various technologies,
including the catalytic converter, or by improving fuel
economy.

Honda performed the best over all in the study by the Union
of Concerned Scientists, in part because it makes fewer
large vehicles than its competitors. A push by Ford to
reduce the emissions of its vehicles ahead of the
regulatory deadlines made it the highest rated of the Big
Three.

Of greatest concern to environmental groups is that
vehicles with low scores on the E.P.A. scale also consume
the most gasoline and, therefore, emit larger amounts of
carbon dioxide, which many scientists consider a major
contributor to global warming. While filtration and engine
technology have sharply reduced emissions of smog-forming
pollutants, there are no filters for carbon.

"We are making progress in controlling health-threatening
air pollution, the stuff that causes respiratory problems,"
said John M. DeCicco, a senior fellow at Environmental
Defense, which monitors vehicle emissions. "For greenhouse
pollution, it's completely different. We're not cutting it
at all, and it's growing as fast as driving is growing."

Faster, possibly, because of the popularity of bigger sport
utilities and pickups.

Japan's Big Three - Toyota, Honda and Nissan - are in the
midst of an aggressive push into those categories, once the
exclusive domain of the domestic Big Three. Even European
automakers that made their names selling performance cars,
like Porsche and BMW, view the sport utility as a staple of
their American showrooms. The competition has in many ways
improved these vehicles, and it has made them more
affordable, as well. That has only helped sales of these
most environmentally troublesome vehicles.

While growth of the very largest sport utilities has
stalled, over all sport utilities continue to gain market
share at the expense of passenger cars and minivans. On the
E.P.A. scale, small and midsize sport utilities tend to
score in the 2 to 5 range and cars in the 6 to 7 range. The
highest ratings are earned by cars that are the most fuel
efficient, particularly those made by Honda. But small
sport utilities with sophisticated engines and catalytic
converters can do well, like the Honda Element, which
scores 6 to 8.

The bottom of the E.P.A.'s chart is dominated by the
largest vehicles, though some of the giants do better than
others because of different emissions control technologies.
The Hummer H2 by General Motors gets a 2, while the scores
for the BMW X5 sport utility range from 1 to 4. The
high-performance version of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class gets
a 0 rating, while all other versions score 1; that means
they produce at least twice as much in smog-forming
pollutants as the Ford Explorer, a 4 on the E.P.A. scale.

The same vehicle can get more than one grade depending on
which of several certification standards is used -
California guidelines, federal standards, or more stringent
federal clean-vehicle standards for certain regions with
more pollution - and low-sulfur gasoline in California
reduces emissions. So the grading system is best not taken
as gospel, experts say.

But the ranges into which vehicles fall give an idea of
their relative contribution to pollution that can cause
smog.

The ratings make clear the extent to which Asian automakers
- whose showrooms long were filled with smaller, cleaner,
more fuel efficient cars - have jumped into the market for
large sport utilities and pickups.

Toyota already sells a full line of light trucks and
derives nearly half of its sales in the United States from
them, a balance not too different from G.M.'s. Earlier this
month Toyota said it would increase truck production with a
new pickup plant in San Antonio. The company has also said
it was planning two sport utilities that will use hybrid
power, which saves gas by supplementing the internal
combustion engine with electric power.

Nissan plans to sell its first full-size pickup, the Titan,
this year, and announced last Thursday that its first
full-size S.U.V., the Pathfinder Armada, would come out in
the fall. Honda, which has been building more sport
utilities, is said to be considering adding a small pickup
truck to its lineup.

Last month, the top executive of Hyundai, the Korean
automaker that made its name in small cars, said the
company would probably sell its first full-size sport
utility by 2007 and was considering a pickup truck as well.


In 1980, light trucks made up only a fifth of American auto
sales. In 2001, they crept past half of the industry's
sales and last year grew to 52 percent.

There were 51 sport utilities on the market last September,
according to George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, a
market research company that conducts focus groups and
surveys. He expects the number to rise to at least 85 by
2006 or 2007.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/business/18AUTO.html?ex=1046689741&ei=1&en=1c84605b5fc60b07